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cured, furnished with a whirl of bone and a fishing hook, i. e. a 
large curved nail, fashioned by filing and ending with a barb. For bait 
I have in summer noticed Angmagssat (Mallotus villosus), pieces 
of the red skin of the redfish, etc. to be used. The “bite” of 
the redfish on the hook is hardly perceptible, because of the 
great depth in which the fish is standing (generally 90—160 fms.); 
if a kayak-man feels that a fish has taken the bait it does not 
matter if the fish gets off the hook during the hauling up — the 
fisherman only need look about him, and the fish will soon appear 
with a swap at the surface of the water near by his kayak, its 
stomach turned inside out protruding from its mouth. When a red¬ 
fish has been lifted some way above the bottom it namely in- 
voluntarily rises to the surface; the outer pressure being lessened 
during the hauling up, and the strongly compressed air in the air 
biadder not being able to get out, the stomach is pressed out through 
the mouth (and the eyes out of their sockets), whereby the specific 
gravity of the fish is reduced, and it becomes so light that it rises 
to the surface “by itself”. 1 ) 
The meat of the redfish is solid, rather lean, still there are 
often large accumulations of fat in the abdominal cavity, the head 
likewise is fat. 2 ) It is highly appreciated by the Greenlanders, 
and in many places forms an essential part of food. It is generally 
boiled; sometimes, when the catch is abundant, part of it is dried. 3 ) 
According to Fabricius, the head is also eaten, slightly putrefied, 
the skin and the lips raw. The same author informs us that in 
olden times the fin-rays were used as needles. 
') The author had an opportunity of making this observation in the summer 
1909 in Nerutusok Fjord of Frederikshaab. A similar phenomenon was 
observed by me during long-lining in the Norwegian sea; when the 
hauling-up had been started and when many torsks or redfishes had 
taken the bait, a long piece of the line with the attached fishes would 
be seen to rise to the surface before it had been hauled up to the fishing 
steamer. 
2 ) On account of this fatness, oil for the lamps may be boiled from the 
redfish and serve as a substitute when seal oil is wanting (comp. 
Rink 1. c., p. 231.) 
3 ) On June 27. 1909 I saw boiling pots full of cut up pieces and heads of 
redfih among the Greenlanders at the Angmagssat place in Nerutusok 
Fjord; some redfishes had been split and put to dry on the rocks. 
Vidensk. Medd. fra Dansk naturh. Foren. Bd. 74. 
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